


Over the Hills and Through the Woods

by Maizzy



Series: Wander Silent [1]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Angst, F/M, First Impressions, Haven, Humor, Hurt No Comfort, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-25
Updated: 2015-07-26
Packaged: 2018-04-11 02:41:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4417901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maizzy/pseuds/Maizzy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eres Lavellan has a bit of magic stuck in her hand, which, according to the seeker that is currently trying to strong-arm her into a holy crusade, means she is somehow expected to save the world. Eres has other ideas. Namely, escape.</p><p>An anonymous gem of a person on tumblr asked me what Eres' first impressions of Solas were like. The answer is bad. Very bad.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Mild-Mannered

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prequel of sorts to [Wander Silent](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3282509/chapters/8836669), though you don't need to read this before you read that (or vice versa).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beautiful title by [Salesman](http://ithesalesman.tumblr.com/)!  
> 

"And if I refuse?"

“Then you may leave, but know that there is nowhere the Breach will not reach you, should you fail to close it."  The seeker glared down her nose at Eres, knuckles white where she gripped the edge of the large oak table. 

Yeah. Really looked like as though she had a choice in the matter. Great. 

Eres ran her fingers through her hair, thinking hard. With a harsh buzz of sparks the damned mark on her hand blitzed to life, and the hair she had been touching immediately ballooned out from the side of her head.

Excellent. 

She blew out a shaky breath and held out her unmarked hand to the seeker. 

"Fine. I'm in for now." Which was a lie, but they didn't have to know that. The seeker cracked a smile, the first Eres had seen from her, but the spymaster narrowed her eyes. 

That glare said many things, but first and foremost it confirmed what Eres had thought to be true in the first place: Despite no longer being shackled, she was every bit the prisoner she had been before letting the breach explode in her face. 

Well, at least until she gave them the slip. 

She shot the spymaster a sunny smile, as the Seeker continued talking and was answered with a deepening frown. Interesting. Perhaps it _would_ actually be a challenge to get away from her reach. 

The thought was intriguing. 

This stare-down was intriguing. 

It had been days since she had even been out of bed. She could use some exercise.

She cracked her knuckles and willed Seeker Pentaghast to hurry it along. If she could find a good enough route, she probably could even be out of Haven before nightfall, and well on her way to Jader.

"Dismissed," said the seeker. 

Eres nodded to them both and left without a word. 

The thick stone walls and dim lighting on the other side of the door gave Eres pause. She had seen it all on the way in, of course, but now that no one was trying to genuflect to her or hurry her along, the sheer density had its chance to press in past her mental calm. Her palms grew clammy. 

Air. She needed air.

Eres half-ran across the rough, stone floor and threw open the chantry doors, blinking against the bright white sunlight. As her vision cleared she saw that already three people were on their knees bowing to her. Bile rose in her throat as she strode past them with false purpose, acting as though she was on her way to attend to whatever important matter it was that a barely ex-prisoner would have to attend to. It was a lesson she had picked up that day with the one-armed man, the pirate and the apple cart; walk with confidence and few to none would try to stop you. 

She followed the dirt path that skirted around the tents and the tavern, deciding on a whim to go see if there were any acceptable footholds in the rock wall hidden behind the cluster of wooden buildings to her left. Leaving Haven upwards before going outwards would help disguise any trail that she might leave, especially because they would not have much of an idea of where to start looking for it. 

“The fabled Herald of Andraste. The blessed hero sent to save us all.”

Eres froze. So much for few to none. 

If ever there was a statement uttered more inaccurate than that one, it could’ve shattered empires. The words that the pleasant voice spoke drew the invisible bindings of her forced stay in Haven up around her once again. 

Joking seemed the best way to dismiss  _that_  kind of talk. 

“Am I riding in on a shining steed?” She hazarded, eyeing the man that’d had the nerve to try to tell her that the Dalish were trash right after almost dislocating her shoulder. 

“I would’ve suggested a griffon, but sadly they are all extinct.”

Silence stretched as his eyes roamed over her with an odd clinical detachment, coming to rest on her marked hand. Eres coughed. She assumed - and it was a rather large leap of faith on her part - that this man was not actually as dour and weird as  _that_ last remark had painted him. Hopefully. He blinked and his eyes snapped back up to meet hers. 

“Joke as you will; posturing is necessary.” He turned away from her and looked off into the distance. “I’ve journeyed deep into the fade in ancient ruins and-“

“Sounds lovely. I really must be going now. Lots of important business to attend to - you know how it is.” 

He turned back, staring at her, one eyebrow rising until the look of incredulity on his face could’ve been framed and sold as a reference guide to How Not To Play Wicked Grace: The Basics.

She gave him a little finger-wave of farewell before making her way to the first open door available. It would’ve been too suspicious to go and stare at the mountainside she intended to climb later that day, no matter how much her instincts were screaming at her to get away. The man reported to the Nightingale - better not to leave him any hint of her plans. Unfortunately, the door she picked happened to be the door to the town’s apothecary. While she pretended to show an interest in examining the varied small flasks lining the walls, the chemist tried to rope her into picking up some recipes for him left in an old cottage on the outskirts of Haven. She agreed when her ears caught on the word “outskirts”. Now at least she would have an actual valid reason to get outside of the town’s limits if anyone else tried to stop her along the way. 

The little bell above the door clinked as she left the apothecary, which was annoying. What was even more annoying was that the bell had announced her exit to the bald mage standing directly outside the door, apparently waiting to try to suck her into another conversation. 

“Have I given some offense?” He asked without preamble.

Good gods. Was it at all possible to go more than ten steps in this place without being expected to talk to someone?

“Nope,” she lied, making to shoulder past him. He caught her arm, prompting Eres to turn and glare first at where is hand made contact with her skin, then up into his eyes. 

“Well, if I have not then perhaps you would enjoy some company while you venture out to do the chemist’s bidding.”

He smiled down at her, the corners of his eyes crinkling up. 

“I work better alone.” She pulled her arm from his loose grasp with a jerk of her shoulder. 

“As do I, but as you cut off our conversation earlier, and I have no desire to slow this peril-wrought mission you are about to embark on, it seems… convenient for me to accompany you.”

“Did the Nightingale put you up to this?” Eres asked. 

Her blunt words seemed to draw him up short. He paused for a moment before replying, “No. However, she is not the only one concerned for the safety of the one tool by which we can close fade rifts.”

Ahh, so that’s what it was. Hand, not her. Practicality, not social ineptitude. Or maybe it was just an unhealthy mixture of both. 

“I see. Well, I’ll just have to try my darnedest not to get offed by any nugs while I venture out into the untamed wilderness of Haven.”

For a moment, his expression hardened - a flash of something that sent a prickle of wariness down the back of her neck. There for a heartbeat, then gone. That cloying, placid smile came back, but her readiness to run like hell couldn't be shaken.

“You should not go alone.”

“And  _you_  really don’t have any say in it.”

Pulse pumping faster than it should, Eres walked past him, not wanting to hang around and find out if her sudden unease was justified. It wouldn’t matter once she was out. Once she was free. She dodged her way through the small town, even ignoring the glib dwarf that she had immediately taken a liking to when he called out to her. There was no point in chatting with any of these people; she would never see them again anyway.

The snow grew thicker as she passed the line of Inquisition tents ringing the perimeter of Haven. She cursed when she noticed the deep tracks she was leaving behind her. Getting to vertical terrain soon would have to be a priority - if only to throw off anyone following her path. 

Eres found the cabin housing the apothecary notes in under five minutes of leaving the town, and set about looting the place. Soon enough she had claimed a thick pair of boots and a wooly scarf. She set out again, doubling back occasionally to leave a more convoluted trail. The shadows began to slant long from the trees around her and the lights of Haven became only a faint rose glow in the distance. There was no one around, and aside from the random wild life, there was very little sound besides the wind. She had taken a momentary break to watch a wolf try to take down a druffalo a while back, half-planning to kill the wolf and take the druffalo meat for herself, but had decided that it would be a costly drain of the limited amount of hours before her captors noticed her absence. She could be hungry for a while. It would not be the first time. 

As the sky grew darker, the ominous hole in it blared its sullen green light down at her, lighting the sparkling snow all around. Surely there must be  _some_  other way to close the damned thing that didn’t involve her hand and whatever was wrong with it. This whole “you’re our only hope” business was bullshit. There were plenty of other hopes. They all had barely even looked for more. Eres herself had  _at least_ six hopes. Possibly even seven. 

Eventually she found a promising place where the ground started to slope upwards at a sharp angle. She located a few handholds, eager to head up into the mountains, and began heaving herself up the icy rock wall. 

“Are the chemist’s notes hidden amongst the Frostbacks?”

She lost her grip and fell back down the the two meters she had managed to climb, landing hard on the tight-packed snow with a “Flump”. 

Gasping in pain, Eres looked up to find that placid smile she had hoped to never see again attached to that elven man she had hoped to never see again, both of which loomed over her.

“Do you get off on this? Is this amusing to you?” She asked with a scowl, wincing as she pushed herself up from the snow. 

“No."

Odd that he had she had not heard him following her.

“So then why are you here?” she demanded.

“I felt the need for air.”

“Ah. And standing out in the open air of Haven wasn’t doing it enough for you?”

His smile grew placid-er. “Indeed not. Though I believe I have had my fill now. Might you escort me back to town?”

The words, all tepid politeness, were no mild-mannered request. They were a notice, tacked to the air between them, that she would not be leaving his side whether she refused his request or not. The dissonance between his slouch-shouldered posture and his ability to follow her unnoticed for over an hour was unnerving. 

“I’m not going back,” she said, swallowing hard.

“I am afraid you are,” he said. 

In a flash of blue light he was at her side. Eres had been ready for it and took off running before he could do anything past reach out for her. 

She sprinted full out, boots crunching in the hard-packed snow with each light step. Another flash of blue and the mage was along side her, matching her pace perfectly. She pushed harder, dodging away and setting off on a new trajectory. Trying to outrun someone that could basically teleport was bad news, but there wasn't time to think of a plan better than "run like hell". It was already all she could do to keep her feet underneath her as she dashed over the icy snow. 

Then, she couldn't even manage that.

A steep downwards slope materialized in front of her, but there was no way to stop her momentum. She skidded and slipped, sliding down the icy, uneven terrain on her hip with a gasp of surprise. Down, down, down she slid, until crashing feet-first into a snow drift.

Eres jumped up and took off running again, glancing over her shoulder for the mage. He was no where in sight. If only that was more reassuring. 


	2. The Hunt

Night had fallen in earnest, and it was all Eres could do to pick out the trees along her path in the gloom. 

Hunted. She was being hunted. Unless he had given up? She remembered the sharp gray eyes, glowering their disapproval at her bid for freedom and knew that was wishful thinking. On she went through the darkened woods and prayed to whatever gods were watching that she wouldn't slip again.

Up ahead, a burst of green light illuminated the outlines of the sparse terrain. Demons began pouring out of the tear in reality, pacing the ground in jerky, animalistic motions. 

She stopped dead in her tracks, standing perfectly still. Demons were not her expertise. She had only fought demons a handful of times before, all of which happened to have taken place in the last week. Shit. She reached for her daggers, tension spiking. There was no way to dodge around them at this point, she was too close. As soon as she moved she would be spotted. Even the gods-damned enemies seemed to be trying to slow her escape.

Eres growled low in frustration when she found her grenade pouch empty. Yet another tally mark on the already long list of things that the Inquisition had taken from her. Anger vibrating through her every pore at the indignity of this rift stopping her progress forward, she whirled out of cover and attacked head-on. The first demon went down with a hiss of pain before any of the others had even realized they were being attacked. The next five did not fall quite so easily. 

By the end, Eres was down a large gauge of flesh from her thigh and blood loss was making her head spin. She managed to pierce a dagger into the place where the last demon’s heart should've been and slumped down to the ground, breathing hard. 

She needed to run, but the lead in her legs and the fluff in her head seemed to have other ideas. 

So it was with a great deal of horror that she watched the rift above her flare bright again and dribble another wave of demons out into the world. 

“Herald! Move!” 

The mage slipped out of the shadows and whirled his staff. An arc of lightning jumped between the demons swarming in on her. With snarls of rage, they wheeled and started after the man, but already her sight was growing fuzzy. The emerald glow whirled and crackled above her head. In a last ditch effort, Eres reached up and felt that magnetic pull from her hand to the rift. She jerked her fist closed, closing the rift and her eyes along with it. 

She didn't pass out, the adrenaline coursing in her veins wouldn't let that happen any time soon, but the idea of sitting up and making sure the mage was ok seemed impossible. Continuing to run even more so. Practically laughable, really. Good thing she had a dumb sense of humor.

She blinked rapidly several times while the world fizzled on the edges of her vision, before rolling over and pushing herself to her feet. 

Bright flashes of light came from between the huddle of demons all clawing and screaming their fury. Hopefully the mage would be kept busy long enough for her to limp away. 

She stumbled on through the trees, knowing that she was leaving a trail of red behind her in the snow, but seeing nothing to do about it. Blearily, she realized that the pain had not yet hit from the injury on her leg due to the snow she had sunk into, but hypothermia where her skin was exposed to the chill night would be a concern. She needed to stop and make camp. But if she stopped, she'd be caught. Unless the demons killed the mage... No. That was a bad thought. He might be frustrating, and frankly, a little scary, but he had saved her life thrice over now. Death should not be included on her wish list for him. 

Shit.

He had saved her, and she'd just left him to die.  _Shit._

There were not many things that could've made her turn her back on her last chance at escape. Unfortunately, a life debt was one of them. Everyone had to draw their line somewhere.

Heart sinking, she swung around and pulled out the throwing daggers on her belt, already regretting it. 

Fucking lines.

Her _morals_ drawing her up short when the stakes were so high was godsdamned ridiculous. And yet... and yet she threw dagger after dagger until she had run dry. Her aim had been less than perfect, what with the blurred vision and shaking hands, but she had not managed to go very far from the enemies before that awful guilt had stopped her.

The last enemy fell and the flashes of light stopped. 

"I had expected you to try to make your escape," he said, breathing hard.

Eres stared at him, shrugged and promptly turned to start hobbling away again. 

A strangled almost-laugh sounded behind her, one part amusement to three parts incredulity. Then in another burst of bluish light, he was jogging at her side again. 

"Really?" He asked.

"I can't go back there. You can't make me stay there," she said, wincing with every step. Her voice was pitched higher than she was used to hearing from herself and it was a moment before she realized that it was the ringing in her ears that was distorting her perceptions, not the way she was actually speaking.

"Herald, please. You must stop. You will not get far on that leg."

"Stop calling me that," she snapped, finding an extra burst of not-so-impressive speed in her temper.

"I will call you what you wish if you stop this farce.”

Eres had to admit that the black splotches on her field of vision significantly increased her chances of walking into a tree or falling off a cliff. Neither seemed like particularly palatable options. 

She stopped. 

“Farce? I don’t know what you think is happening here, but this is my  _life_.”

“And is your life really worth so much more than the fate of this world?”

“Of course not! It’s not that-… No,” Eres growled in frustration. Her head was spinning. Or maybe it was the world spinning. Either way, it resulted in her sitting down hard in the snow. 

Suddenly business-like, the mage crouched before her and waved his hand, making a glyph appear on the ground under where she sat. The snow melted in a three meter circle after only a minute or two. 

“May I?” He asked, gesturing at her leg. 

She grunted in the affirmative. 

He carefully placed a hand on her leg and suddenly the pain that had been dulled by the snow came roaring up as the steady gush of blood lessened. She gasped in a breath, then bit down on her lip, determined not to show even more weakness than she already had. 

The mage glanced up at her, a strangely calculating look. 

“If I am to heal this injury fully, I will need your word that you will not try to run again.”

Eres stared back. Jaw clenching and unclenching as she drew up mental barricades between her and the pain. 

After a moment, he sighed. “I see. Well, if you are unable to walk and unwilling to stay, then it seems we shall be spending the night away from town.”

“Seems so,” Eres hissed out between clenched teeth. 

“As you wish. Give me a moment to set up a few wards.”

He got up and walked in a circle around them, doing... something. It felt like little gusts of wind flying out and around her before solidifying into invisible shapes that made her teeth hum. Magic was weird. 

"You don't have to stay," she called out to him.

"You do not have to leave," he countered as he finished his circle. He turned back and with a small displacement of air, a fire sprung up in front of her. The heat felt delicious. Places she hadn't even realized were cold started to prickle back into feeling. 

“Well then, if we're warded in you can probably go ahead and heal my leg now," she suggested.

He regarded her for a moment, before swinging a pack off of his back and rummaging around in it. He pulled out an apple and tossed it her way before settling on the ground several feet from her, taking a bite of an apple of his own. 

She frowned down at the fruit, then glanced back up at him. "Ooo-kay, thanks for the apple, but the leg?"

"I told you that required."

"Ass," she spat. 

He smiled at her as he took another bite. The smile wasn't so placid this time. Sharp... Amused? Another shiver skittered down her spine.

They sat in silence for a while, the mud from his fire ward slowly seeping through her breeches. The sparse forest around them was quiet. Nothing moved, aside from the swaying tree branches and the clouds drifting overhead. 

"I'm surprised you haven't tied me up yet, if you're so bent on keeping me prisoner," Eres drawled after a time. It was kind of a long shot, but possibly he'd lower his guard if he had her tied up. People in general tended to do that - assume that once they had a well-stacked upper hand the game was over. Even so, it seemed unlikely that this mage would fall for something as simple as that. He'd been damned wily so far. Wily people didn't get that way without experience, and they didn't live long enough to get that experience by being stupid.

He glanced over, eyeing her shrewdly, but said nothing. Just took another bite of apple. 

Eres sighed. 

He chewed slowly, thoughtfully, still watching her, then quietly asked, "Why is it you are so willing to toss away the world?"

Her stomach sank. This again. "That's not what this is, I just... There has to be a better way. I didn't ask for this. Saving people isn't... really... my expertise. There's no way anyone can expect-- the only thing that will happen if I actually went along with this  _farce" -_ she glowered over at him for emphasis, just in case echoing his own insult wasn't enough - "is that I'll fuck it up. Then the world ends anyway."

"If it will end anyway, than what have you to lose by trying?" He asked nonchalantly, turning his attention to the pack he'd brought along with him.

"That right there is some very cyclical logic," she countered. "If the world's going to end either way, why try to fool people into believing there's a chance it won't? See? I can make awkward logic loops too."

"So you can," he agreed. 

"Besides, this Herald of Andraste stuff is all bullshit. They think I'm some sort of... saint? I can't... I don't want to be seen like that. People shouldn't revere things they don't understand."

His mouth twisted into a grimace. “Ah yes, and the Dalish do have such a superior grasp on what should and should not be idol-”

"What's your problem with the Dalish?" She interrupted, frustration mounting, "Allergic to halla?"

"They are children acting out stories misheard and repeated wrongly a thousand times.”

"Oh, but you know the truth, right?”

He huffed out a short breath of what could only be annoyance.  "Through my journeys in the fade, yes. But that is beside the point. Do you think the humans putting their trust in Andraste for centuries understand her more than they understand you? No. Faith is just that, an agreement to understand actions and the drift of fate through the little known of the people that shape history. You are merely living it. Will you leave your legacy as the one that walked away from the world when it needed your help the most?”

"I don't want  _any_ legacy." Eres toyed with the apple in her hands. "Legacies are for people that matter. Not for me."

Though she wasn't looking at him, the pressure of his gaze bore into her. She could feel it like a physical touch, trying to press her into agreeing to this... this insanity. 

"Admirable, that you do not seek the glory inherent to your unique position, but it is too late for that. Your actions now are already being written into the history books. Would you have them write you as the woman that tried to fix the apocalypse, or the elf that left the world to burn."

Eres blinked and looked up from where she had been staring at her hands. They would say it was because she was an elf, wouldn't they? Of course the actions of one would condemn the many. That was how people in power had justified atrocities for centuries. The Orlesians had even done it recently with the slaughter in Halamshiral. A handful of nobodies stood up to the guards, and the whole alienage burned for it. And they were just people - not in any way publicly recognized. How much worse would it be for her people if an elf left everything to destruction? 

Then the concept of the world ending clicked in her mind. Fully for the first time, she could see it all. There would be no elves, after a time. There would be no humans to do the blaming. There would be nothing. Everything would vanish, and her along with it. Deshanna, her mother, her father, everyone. All gone. The air left Eres’ lung, crushed out by the hulking weight of responsibility waiting for her to pick it up.

The mage hadn't given up his hunt when they had stopped running. He was manipulating her. She knew it, recognized it, but he was right.

"There has to be some other way," she repeated, after a time, each word tearing out of her like an arrow piercing through her gut.

The mage sighed. "If you stay, perhaps in time we will find another way, but chaos will fall in the mean time if you do not."

She stared into the fire and flexed her marked hand. "But if I fail?" She was disgusted to realize that the responsibility she was actually beginning to contemplate was making a lump of emotion rise in her throat.

She felt him look at her and risked a glance. Pity, but without any warmth. She was a chess piece on this man's mental board. Well, at least there was one person that didn't buy into this Maker bullshit. She knew where she stood with him. It was almost reassuring to be seen as an asset. That, at least, was label she was used to wearing. Strange, for an apostate to care so much. Though, she supposed, her decisions now affected him too. They effected everyone.

Gods she hated that thought.

"You will not be alone," he said softly, but still there was no warmth. It was helpful to her. It took the question of personhood out of the equation, which made her way forward clearer. “There are many who will help you.”

She swallowed hard, and let go. She would be their herald, until she inevitably fucked it up.

"And you are one of them?"

"Yes."

"That's good."

He smiled, looking grim. "Yes, it likely is."

Eres rolled over and pretended to go to sleep. Eventually, some time many hours later she managed to sleep for real. To the best of her knowledge, the man stayed up all night, keeping watch. She didn't much care either way. In the morning, she awoke to find her leg healed. They didn't speak as he pulled down his wards and soon they were walking back towards Haven, squinting against the glare of the sun on the snow. 

As the tents on the edges of the town came into view, Eres froze, panic reaching up like an intangible hand, grabbing her and rooting her to the spot. This was it. Setting foot back in that village was her non-verbal, but total agreement to play their games. The mage did not hurry her, merely stood and watched her, leaning on his staff. 

She took the step. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WELL. This got melancholy. I was so close to capping this fic off with a flash-forward to when they're actually dating/reminiscing, but decided that I wanted to keep it kind of dark. I might eventually write a oneshot to bridge the time gap between this and [Wander Silent](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3282509/chapters/8836669) , too, but I don't have any official (or whatever) plans for that yet.
> 
> Thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> I was thiiiis close to using this as a flashback for [Wander Silent](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3282509/chapters/8836669), but it got so long that it ended up as a two-shot... whoops?
> 
> (p.s. just so we're all on the same page here, I feel like the entirety of Inquisition took at least 2 years, possibly 3, so time spent in Haven = around 6 months in my head)


End file.
